In my meditation practice,
I strive to remain focused on the present.
At the same time,
It seems wise to prepare for the future in terms of planning for events that might happen.
How can I resolve this conflict between focus on the present and preparing for the future?
When we are anxious,
Anxious,
Or worried about the future,
We tend to think about the unforeseen events in the future.
We tend to think about the unforeseen events in the future.
So when we suffer due to anxiety,
Or concerns,
Or worry,
We tend to do that when we think too much about some kind of misfortune in the future.
Some of these misfortunes may actually happen,
But most do not.
But we nevertheless suffer because of our imaginations about these misfortunes.
In those cases,
If you remain mindful,
If you remain focused on the present,
In those cases,
If you remain mindful,
If you remain present in the here and now,
You are able to avoid those concerns.
On the other hand,
We also think too much about the traumas that we experienced in the past,
Or the difficulties we went through.
But when we recall those,
We almost imagine as if they are happening to us today,
And we therefore get angry,
Or anxious,
Or sad.
So if we can free ourselves from those past,
Then a lot of our suffering goes away as well.
Therefore,
When we meditate,
We are practicing being awake to the here and now by letting go of our thoughts of the past or our predictions of the future.
However,
If the thoughts of the past or your thoughts of the future does not bring about suffering to you,
Then it's okay to think about those.
However,
You can do so,
It's better to do so when you are not meditating.
Because meditation is a time where you dedicate yourself to practicing of freeing yourself from the past and the future.
However,
If you insist on thinking about the future or remembering the past during meditation time,
Then there's no need to meditate.
Even if we try not to think about the future or the past,
It actually inevitably happens to us.
And it creates suffering.
But if you develop the capacity to let go of thoughts of the past or the future,
Then you can avoid yourself that suffering.
But since that's so difficult to do,
That's why we are practicing,
That's why we are meditating.
Therefore,
At least during meditation,
Thinking about the future is not a good way to spend that time to meditate.
If there comes a need where you have to plan for the future,
Think about the future or the past,
It's good to do so.
In that sense,
It's good to think about the past because you can use it as a lessons learned to leverage a better future.
And to think about and plan for the future is also a good thing.
So doing so intentionally,
Thinking about the past and the future and planning for the future or not,
Is a good thing.
But when those things happen to you,
You have to let go of those things.
If you don't let go of those things,
You can't get out of the suffering.
If those things actually cause suffering to you,
And you want to let them go,
But you can't,
That's when the issue becomes.
Therefore,
If you don't actually experience suffering in your everyday life,
Thinking about the future or remembering the past,
Then go ahead and do so.
Because it's always good to take lessons learned from the past experience and proactively plan for the future.
However,
A practitioner means that you need to be free,
You need to be able to free yourself from the past.
However,
A practitioner means that you need to be free,
You need to be able to free yourself from any kind of suffering,
Sadness,
Anxiety,
Worry,
Concerns that comes about from remembering the past or planning for the future.
Therefore,
Once again to summarize,
During meditation itself,
You should be able to let go of any plans for the future or any thoughts of the past.
